Diabetic/Hypo Question: Weight Gain After Nighttime Low

grmeg

Hello all! I'm a type 1 Diabetic who frequently suffers from hypoglycemia. I've been relying purely on glucose tabs to raise my blood glucose levels when low to keep the calories down as much as I can, but whenever I have a nighttime low I end up gaining at least 2 lbs in the morning, & sometimes it takes a few days to return to my previous weight.

Does anyone else have this problem? I'm not hypo-binging on high-carb or sugary foods, & I haven't been going over my calorie goal (since I'll leave at least 50 calories for glucose just in case), but it's been getting frustrating.

Is this water weight or some other kind of odd insulin retention?

Also, feel free to share your own hypo experiences. Going hypo while dieting is definitely the hardest part for me, since my body is craving food like a wild boar. I swear I could eat everything in the fridge when I go low.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

Some of my worst lows have been while I'm sleeping (because I don't know it... I just don't wake up until the glucagon release). I've dislocated my shoulder from a seizure while sleeping, and I even had a low that caused a seizure and temporary amnesia (I was totally confused for a few weeks, and it took me months and even years to recover all memories from prior to that time). You probably know not to mess around with this, and you probably should review your insulin rates. Also, consider a CGM.

I have both type 1 and type 2 diabetes (long story for another time, but I have type 2 due to the way that type 1 was treated during the 90's). Because I have both, I have to be careful about losing too quickly and changing sensitivity (i.e. decreasing effects of type 2). There was one day, a few months after I got serious about losing weight, where I could not keep my blood sugar up. I ate more than 600g of carbs without any bolus insulin and decreased basal insulin. My BG just wouldn't stay up. I would eat loads of carbs, it would go up to around 100 mg/dl, then return to 40's within an hour... I ate more and same thing over and over and over again. I freaked out at about 12 hours of this because it was getting late and I didn't want to fall asleep because I didn't think I would ever wake up again. Finally at about 13-14 hours in, the last thing I ate got me in the 200's, which made me comfortable it wasn't going to drop again (2 trays of Oreos - I had stopped at Wal-Mart and just raided the cookie aisle to treat lows, though I know the calorie content is higher than glucose tabs... I would have had serious cotton-mouth eating that many glucose tabs).

OK, so as far as weight gain after hypoglycemia. I've not weighed myself to notice a trend either way in the short term. But regular / low BG over time gives the risk of weight gain just as high BG's over time in type 1's causes weight loss, but not quite the same. I'm sure you are familiar with all of that. In the short term, I would think that water weight decreases with lows due to the massive amounts of sweating that occurs.

xx_bymanon

I know How you feel. Im a type one as well and i find the hardest part to deal with hypos. After a work-out or at night.. Im not sure why Youre gaining so much, but it could be because your body is not used to Eat so much anymore? (like maybe you have cut back on carbs?) anyway, Maybe ask your nurse?

grmeg

@midwesterner85
I get lows at night the most too! I actually already have a CGM (a Dexcom). I've had my fair share of scary lows too, but luckily no short-term amnesia! The CGM definitely has helped me improve a lot. I've worked with my current Endo for the past couple years & it's gotten a lot better, but I'll still struggle. Dieting has made it a lot more complicated for sure.

Though, for anyone else, I'm not really looking for advice on my lows - that's something I've been working with my endocrinologist with for a while. I'm more curious if anyone else has after-low weight gain.

brendak76

No issues with night time weight gain, but just wanted to chime in with feeling your pain. I've had a low day and went significantly over my calories today because I just gave in and ate and ate and didn't use tabs like I should have. Sigh. My weight will likely be up tomorrow but that's not from a night time low, it's from daytime lows/over treating.

I have a "diet" basal profile on my pump and "normal". The diet profile is about 30-35% lower than normal. Decided to switch back to the diet profile because of lows this week.

Just curious how many tabs you have at night when your low? For me I need 2-3 if I'm in the 50s. The Dexcom catches most of them earlier though.

grmeg

I probably eat anywhere between 2-6 tabs depending on how bad my low is. It's SO hard not to just chug juice like I used too.

I'm still figuring out how much long term to take since it keeps changing (less weight, harder & more frequent exercises.)